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Maybe April
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January 18, 2015
Tisdale
by: Timothy W. Shire
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I’ll bet that you too have grown a bit weary of politics lately. Back in 1998, when I first began this web site and for more than half of the time it has been posting, politics and political discussion made up a major part of the stories that were shared on the site. As time went on, especially since 2006 and the rise to power of the present prime minister and his government, I simply have become a bit frustrated. Prior to that, I knew and was aware, that what was being written and posted on this site, was influencing people and was therefore worth the effort.

However, it is clear that the government in Ottawa pays little attention to either the views of its citizens, or the views of anyone other than the prime minister and his advisors, who over the years, have been a bunch of bad people.

It was quietly announced on Friday that one of the prime minister’s appointees, who is now imprisoned in Panama, will be extradited to face fraud charges for his activities in the expansion of a Montreal university hospital. Other appointments like one to the Supreme Court, were excluded because of eligibility and the three notorious senators that he promoted to that august house, are in various stages of appearing in court.

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Bad company leads to bad decisions and the federal government in Ottawa seems to have the corner on making bad decisions. The most recent of these reeks of such political manipulation, that it is really hard to come up with an example in the past of anything quite as extreme.

In 2008 the government of Canada passed an act specifying when federal elections would occur. Of course this broke with the established principles of British parliamentary democracy and sounded very American. It is now the law, but everyone knows that the prime minister will disregard it if he choses, just as he has already done so once before.

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The second decision was to have a balanced budget. Now this is an idea Canadian can all agree upon, as we all know that government should be run pretty much like we conduct our own personal business and living on borrowed money just doesn’t work. Up until the present government coming to power in 2006, the federal government had established a solid pattern of balanced and surplus budgets under the former Liberal governments. However, since coming to office, the government just hasn’t been able to accomplish this task, while at the same time, cutting taxes for the wealthy and the corporations and at the same time, doling our huge amounts of money to huge companies. But the decision was made and announced over and over, that in 2015, the budget would be balanced.

With a very small surplus expected, the prime minister launched a very expensive tax cut to wealth Canadian families, those who can afford to have one partner stay at home and one earn a living. As we all know, that involves very few Canadians, but nevertheless, the prime minister announced that they could split their income for income tax purposes, which of course, means that this wealthy class of Canadian families, are going to see a big drop in their taxes, while at the same time he announced a healthy boost to the child benefits, to provide some help to funding day care and the costs involving raising children.

Along came the drop in oil prices. As you can see at the gas pumps, the price fall has been dramatic and the revenues to governments is similarly dramatic.

The decision to have a balanced budget is in danger and quite simply isn’t possible, so to fix that issue, the government has just decided not to put out a budget. Simple solution, no budget no deficit right!

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Actually the minister of finance just said he would table a budget later, perhaps in April, when he had more information about the economy, because of “economic instability”.

Are, you kidding me?

Absolutely!

I quit writing and posting stories like this one, years ago because of the huge amount of frustration involved. When the logic and behaviours are so far beyond reason and there is no chance of influencing the decision making process, it really seems pointless for me to get all worked about something that is so far beyond my sphere of control. However, in the back of my mind, I know that here in Saskatchewan, we have only one member of parliament who is not sitting on the government side. That means, perhaps a lot of people who might look at this story voted, for a sitting member of parliament, one who is responsible for the plainly bad government we have been getting. So, I am posting this, hoping that if you are a supporter of the present government, you might realise the error of your ways and do something about it at election time.

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Election time, now that’s a joke. With the present situation in Ottawa, election time is all of the time. The government is in full campaign mode at all times, not in governing mode, but only angling to garner votes. That alone is just wrong and everyone should know better.

From one massive announcement to another we are shepherded along. It is announced that a huge ship building programme will take place to bolster our presence in the Arctic. Eight ships are needed and promised, now it is admitted that four, maybe five poorly equipped vessels will be built.

Money is promised to fight ebola, help out in Haiti, support various causes, but it is all just campaigning. Canada promises to help Syrian refugees, but only a few hundred are assisted and then only if they are not muslim. Every promise is just that, a promise, a part of a never ending campaign, not a process of government.

The only thing that really happens is about a billion dollars have been doled out during the last month and a half to wealthy American industries. Pratt & Whitney and a car parts manufacturer, they will get their money, your money, just as businesses, big and super big, get their tax breaks and subsidies.

Don’t you wish your bank and credit card company would live on your promises, real and imagined.
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